MANILA, Philippines (AP) — Philippine police officials on Wednesday filed criminal complaints against Vice President Sara Duterte and her security staff for allegedly assaulting authorities and disobeying orders in a recent altercation in Congress.
The criminal complaints filed by the Quezon City police were separate from any legal action that may arise after she publicly threatened to have President Ferdinand Marcos Jr., his wife and the speaker of the House of Representatives assassinated if she were killed herself in an unspecified plot. She has not provided details of that plot.
A presidential adviser, Larry Gadon, separately filed a Supreme Court petition on Wednesday to disbar the vice president as a lawyer, citing her assassination threats, which he said were “illegal, immoral and condemnable.”
The Marcos administration’s legal offensive against Duterte, her father and their allies is a critical juncture in a conflict that has seethed over the last two years between the two most powerful families in the Philippines.
Speaking in a news conference, the vice president broadly denied and played down the criminal complaints, allegations and potential lawsuits against her, including a possible impeachment case and an alleged violation of the country's anti-terror law. She said the government actions were aimed at removing her from office, freezing her properties and bank accounts and barring her from traveling abroad.
Duterte said without elaborating that the danger to her life was real but added that the threats she made were not actual and illegal.
“This is really oppression and harassment for remarks taken out of logical context,” Duterte said. She also said in response to a question that she no longer thought a reconciliation with the president was possible.
“I really believe that we have reached a point of no return,” she said.
The Department of Justice said it is also looking into potentially seditious remarks by Marcos’s predecessor and the vice president’s father, Rodrigo Duterte, who said in a news conference that the civilian government would only listen if the military voices concerns about corruption and irregularities under the Marcos administration.
"There is a fractured governance. … It is only the military that can correct it,” the former president said Monday night. He said he was not urging the military to rise up against Marcos but only reaffirming the real situation in the Philippines.
Still, justice officials said an investigation into the former president's remarks will proceed.
The criminal complaints for assaulting, disobeying and grave coercion against police authorities were filed against the vice president and her security staff and other aides before state prosecutors, a police statement said. Such crimes are punishable by a jail term and a fine.
The complaints were set off by a chaotic squabble over the weekend in the House of Representatives, where the vice president’s chief of staff, Zuleika Lopez, has been temporarily detained. Legislators accused Lopez of obstructing and not cooperating with a congressional inquiry into alleged misuse of confidential and intelligence funds by the offices of the vice president and the education secretary, which Sara Duterte held.
At one point, authorities were ordered to transfer Lopez to a women’s prison outside Congress, causing her to become agitated. The vice president and her staff intervened to oppose the order and Lopez was eventually moved to a government hospital, where she remains confined.
“The rule of law is fundamental to our democratic system. No one, regardless of their position, should be above accountability,” national police chief Gen. Rommel Francisco Marbil said of the criminal complaints against the vice president and her aides. The national police “remain committed to ensuring the proper execution of lawful orders and protecting public order,” he said.
"Resistance and disobedience to a person in authority not only violates the law but also undermines public trust,” Marbil said.
In a separate case, authorities delivered a subpoena to the vice president's office Tuesday, inviting her to answer investigators’ questions about the threats she made over the weekend. Duterte had said she was not making a direct threat but was expressing concerns for her own safety.
Marcos said in a televised public address that the vice president’s threats against him, his wife Liza Marcos and House Speaker Martin Romualdez were a criminal plot and vowed to fight them and uphold the rule of law.
Marcos ran with Sara Duterte as his vice-presidential running mate in the 2022 elections and both won landslide victories on a campaign call for national unity. In the Philippines, the president and vice president are elected separately, and that has resulted in rival politicians assuming the top political posts in a country with deep political and social divisions.
The two leaders and their camps have since fallen out over key differences, including their approaches to China’s aggressive territorial claims i n the disputed South China Sea and views on ex-President Duterte’s anti-drug crackdown, which left thousands of mostly poor suspects dead.
Sara Duterte resigned from the Marcos Cabinet in June as education secretary and head of an anti-insurgency body and became one of the most vocal critics of the president, his wife and Romualdez, the president’s cousin who heads a congress that’s dominated by their allies.
Philippine Vice President Sara Duterte gestures as she attends a hearing at the House of Representative in Quezon City, Philippines on Monday Nov. 25, 2024. (AP Photo/Aaron Favila)
FILE - Philippine President Ferdinand Marcos Jr. listens during the 12th Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) -U.S. Summit in Vientiane, Laos, Oct. 11, 2024. (AP Photo/Sakchai Lalit, File)
FILE - Philippine President Ferdinand Marcos Jr., center right, and Vice President Sara Duterte, daughter of former Philippine President Rodrigo Duterte, raise hands during the inauguration ceremony at National Museum on Thursday, June 30, 2022 in Manila, Philippines. (AP Photo/Aaron Favila, File)
This combination photo shows Philippine Vice President Sara Duterte, left, in Quezon City, Philippines, Nov. 13, 2024, and Philippines President Ferdinand Marcos Jr. in Vientiane, Laos, Oct. 9, 2024. (AP Photo)
Long-displaced residents of south Lebanon started returning to their homes hours after a ceasefire between Israel and the Hezbollah militant group took effect early Wednesday morning.
The ceasefire has brought relief across the Mediterranean nation, coming after days of some of the most intense airstrikes and clashes since the war began, though many wondered if the agreement to stop fighting would hold. Israel has said it will attack if Hezbollah breaks the ceasefire agreement, which was announced Tuesday.
Thousands of people made their way into southern Lebanon, defying a warning from the Israeli military to stay away from previously evacuated areas.
At least 42 people were killed by Israeli strikes across Lebanon on Tuesday, according to local authorities. Hezbollah also fired rockets into Israel on Tuesday, triggering air raid sirens in the country’s north.
The Israel-Hezbollah ceasefire marks the first major step toward ending the regionwide unrest triggered by Hamas’ attack on Israel on Oct. 7, 2023, but it does not address the devastating war in Gaza.
Hezbollah began attacking Israel a day after Hamas’ attack. The fighting in Lebanon escalated into all-out war in September with massive Israeli airstrikes across the country and an Israeli ground invasion of the south.
In Gaza, more than 44,000 people have been killed and more than 104,000 wounded in the nearly 14-month war between Israel and Hamas, according to Gaza’s Health Ministry.
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BERLIN — German Chancellor Olaf Scholz has expressed relief over the Israel-Hezbollah ceasefire and called on both sides to stick to the agreement.
“Finally, Hezbollah and Israel have agreed on a ceasefire in Lebanon, brokered by our partners USA and France,” Scholz wrote Wednesday on X.
“It is important that everyone sticks to what has been agreed, so that people on both sides of the border can live in safety again.”
Germany is a staunch ally of Israel, but at the same time home to a Lebanese immigrant community of more than 100,000.
BEIRUT — The speaker of Lebanon’s parliament called for another effort to fill the country’s long-vacant presidency just hours after a ceasefire to halt hostilities between Hezbollah and Israel went into effect.
Lebanon has been without a president since October 2022, as its deeply divided parliament has been unable to elect a new head of state. The last effort to elect a president was more than a year ago.
Speaker Nabih Berri called for political parties to come together to elect a president “who unites rather than divides.”
“I call upon you because a moment of truth in which we must unite for the sake of Lebanon has arrived,” Berri said in a televised address.
“This is a test for how we can save Lebanon. How we can build it and how we can bring back life for its constitutional institutions.”
The war compounded Lebanon’s economic troubles and worsened tensions between political groups allied and opposed to Hezbollah.
Berri spearheaded Lebanon’s negotiation efforts for a U.S.-brokered ceasefire to end the war between Israel and Hezbollah. He’s a top Shiite politician and a key ally of Hezbollah.
BAGHDAD — One of the most powerful Iran-backed factions in Iraq said it would continue its operations in support of Gaza despite the Israel-Hezbollah ceasefire.
Iraqi militias have repeatedly launched attacks on Israel from Iraq in the nearly 14 months since the Israel-Hamas war broke out.
In a statement, the Kataib Hezbollah group said that the ceasefire would not have been possible without the “resilience of Hezbollah fighters and the failure of the Zionists to achieve their objectives, making the decision solely Lebanese.”
The group said that a pause by one member of the so-called Axis of Resistance, which includes Iran-backed groups from Lebanon, Syria, Iraq, and Yemen, would not undermine the broader “unity of fronts” strategy.
The militia also said the U.S. had been Israel’s partner “in all acts of betrayal, killing, destruction and displacement,” and said it “will eventually have to pay for its actions.”
TYRE, Lebanon — Mohammed Kaafarani has lived through multiple conflicts with Israel. But he says the past two months were the worst of them all.
“They were a nasty and ugly 60 days,” said Kaafarani, 59, who was displaced from the Lebanese village of Bidias, near the southern port city of Tyre.
Thousands of displaced people poured into the city Wednesday after a ceasefire between Israel and Hezbollah went into effect.
Kaafarani said the latest war was the most difficult because the bombardment was so intense. “We reached a point where there was no place to hide. Even buildings were destroyed.”
He said Tyre was left almost empty as most of its residents fled.
Kaafarani said he hopes his children and grandchildren will have a better future without wars because “our generation suffered and is still suffering.”
“The last two months were way too long,” said Kaafarani, whose home was badly damaged in the fighting. He vowed to fix it and continue on with life.
HAIFA, Israel — Some people in Israel who have been displaced by fighting with the Lebanese militant group Hezbollah say the ceasefire deal doesn’t make them feel secure enough to go home.
Some 50,000 people have been displaced from a string of cities, towns and villages along Israel’s northern border with Lebanon. Those communities have been pummeled by Hezbollah rocket and drone fire for 13 months, with dozens of houses damaged and in need of rebuilding or rehabilitation.
Noy Friedman, who was displaced from the town of Shlomi to the city of Haifa, said she wouldn’t feel safe in her hometown.
“I am also not ready for my family to return to Shlomi,” said Friedman.
Many displaced Israelis have been living in hotels since the fighting began in Oct. 2023 or have tried to reestablish their lives in new areas far from the fighting.
Returning could take months because of the damage caused to the communities, but also because of the fears many of the displaced still feel.
On a cold, rainy Wednesday morning, the hard-hit Israeli town of Kiryat Shmona was quiet. A handful of people milled about, inspecting damage from rocket attacks, including to the roof of a bus.
The town’s shopping mall, which had been hit before, appeared to have new damage. A rocket was seen stuck in the ground next to an apartment building.
“I am against the ceasefire,” said Eliyahu Maman, a Kiryat Shmona resident displaced to Haifa who feared Hezbollah could still attack from southern Lebanon. “I am not ready to return to Kiryat Shmona.”
AMMAN, Jordan — Jordan on Wednesday welcomed the ceasefire between Israel and the Lebanese militant group Hezbollah, saying it should be followed by an international effort to wind down the war in Gaza.
In a statement, Jordan’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs called the ceasefire “an important step.” But it said “Israeli aggression on Gaza” must be stopped.
Jordan expressed support for Lebanon and stressed the importance of fully implementing the ceasefire.
Jordan is a close Western ally that made peace with Israel in 1994. But Israel’s devastating offensive in the Gaza Strip, launched after Hamas’ Oct. 7, 2023 attack, has strained relations. The country has a large Palestinian population which has demonstrated regularly against the war in Gaza.
KHAN YOUNIS, Gaza Strip — Palestinians said Wednesday they hoped there would be a ceasefire in Gaza now that Israel and the Lebanese militant group Hezbollah agreed to a truce.
But some feared that Israel would be more heavy handed with Gaza now that its forces were freed up from the fighting against Hezbollah.
“The situation will be worse, because the pressure will be more on Gaza,” said Mamdouh Yonis, a man currently living in Khan Younis after being displaced from the southern city of Rafah, told The Associated Press.
Palestinians in Gaza are desperately waiting for a ceasefire agreement that would end the war between Hamas and Israel. It’s already killed over 44,000 people according to local authorities, who don’t distinguish between combatants and civilians in their count.
The war was sparked when Hamas raided southern Israel in Oct. 2023, killing 1,200 and kidnapping 250, about 100 of whom remain in Gaza.
International mediation efforts meant to clinch a deal have faltered repeatedly, and the war is now in its 14th month with no end in sight.
“They agree to a ceasefire in one place and not in the other? Have mercy on the children, the elderly and the women. We are sitting in tents and now it is winter,” said Ahlam Abu Shalabi, a woman displaced from Gaza City.
ANKARA, Turkey — Turkey welcomed the ceasefire reached between Israel and Hezbollah in Lebanon, expressing hope that it would lead to a lasting truce.
In a statement issued Wednesday, Turkey’s Foreign Ministry also called on the international community to exert pressure on Israel to force it to “strictly comply with the ceasefire and compensate for the damage it has caused in Lebanon.”
The ministry also urged the establishment of “permanent and comprehensive” ceasefire in Gaza, calling on Israel to “end its aggressive policies.”
TEL AVIV, Israel — The Israeli military said Wednesday that its forces opened fire in Lebanon on a number of cars that approached an area it said was restricted, as a ceasefire between Israel and Hezbollah appeared to take hold.
The military said the vehicles drove away. It was not immediately clear if there were any injuries as a result.
The Israeli military has warned residents of previously evacuated areas of Lebanon that had been evacuated, but displaced people have been streaming south to their homes.
The military said soldiers remained in position in southern Lebanon and that the air force was ready to act if needed. It said Israel’s aerial defense array was also at the ready for any ceasefire violations.
PARIS — France’s foreign minister underlined his country’s role in brokering an agreement that ended fighting between Israel and Lebanon’s Hezbollah militant group alongside the U.S., saying the deal wouldn’t have been possible without France’s special relationship with its former protectorate.
“It’s a success for French diplomacy and we can be proud,” said the minister, Jean-Noël Barrot, speaking hours after the ceasefire went into effect Wednesday.
“It is true that the United States have a privileged relationship with Israel. But with Lebanon, it’s France that has very old ties, very close ties,” the minister added. “It would not have been possible to envisage a ceasefire in Lebanon without France being involved on the front line.”
France will be involved in monitoring the ceasefire, Barrot noted, with 700 French soldiers deployed as part of the 10,000-strong United Nations peacekeeping force, known as UNIFIL, that has been patrolling the border area between Lebanon and Israel for nearly 50 years.
The minister said France will also work to strengthen Lebanese troops that will deploy in the south of the country as part of the ceasefire, although he didn’t specify what that might include.
BEIRUT — The Lebanese military asked displaced people returning to southern Lebanon to avoid frontline villages and towns near the border where the Israeli military is still present until the troops withdraw.
Thousands of people have been returning to other previously evacuated areas in south Lebanon in defiance of an Israeli warning to avoid all previously evacuated areas. Many of those areas were hit by strikes just hours before the ceasefire took effect.
DUBAI, United Arab Emirates — Iran welcomed the ceasefire between Israel and Lebanon’s Hezbollah, Tehran's main militant partner in the Mideast.
Iranian Foreign Ministry spokesman Esmail Baghaei praised the ceasefire in a statement Wednesday morning.
Baghaei said that Iran still sought a ceasefire in the Israel-Hamas war in the Gaza Strip. But like Hezbollah, it's dropped the demand that a ceasefire also take place at the same time in the Gaza Strip.
He also called for the International Criminal Court to try the “criminals of the occupying regime,” referring to Israel. The ICC has issued arrest warrants for Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and Israel’s former defense minister.
TYRE, Lebanon — Displaced people started returning to the coastal city of Tyre on motorcycles and in cars early Wednesday, defying an Israeli military warning to stay away from previously evacuated areas.
Ahmad Husseini said returning to southern Lebanon was an “indescribable feeling” and praised Speaker of Parliament Nabih Berri, who led Lebanon’s negotiations with Washington. “He made us and everyone proud.”
Husseini, who earlier fled a town near the coastal city, spoke to The Associated Press while in his car with family members.
Meanwhile, sporadic celebratory gunfire could be heard at a main roundabout in the city, as people returning honked the horns of cars — some piled with mattresses — and residents cheered.
A couple of men shouted slogans praising slain Hezbollah leader Hassan Nasrallah, who was killed in an Israeli airstrike in September.
Hussein Sweidan said he sees the ceasefire as a victory for Hezbollah. “This is a moment of victory, pride and honor for us, the Shia sect, and for all of Lebanon,” he said.
BEIRUT — As dawn broke in Beirut, plumes of smoke were visible rising from places hit by Israeli strikes before the ceasefire took effect at 4 a.m. Residents of Lebanon’s capital and its southern suburbs endured the most intense day of strikes since the war began on Tuesday.
BEIRUT — As the ceasefire went into effect early Wednesday, much of Lebanon was quiet for the first time since late September, following weeks of intense overnight strikes in southern and eastern Lebanon.
Some celebratory gunshots could be heard in parts of Beirut’s southern suburbs, battered over the past two months.
Israel’s Arabic military spokesperson Avichay Adraee has warned displaced Lebanese not to return to their villages in southern Lebanon, but some videos circulating on social media show displaced Lebanese defying these calls and returning to villages in the south near the coastal city of Tyre.
Israeli troops are still present in parts of southern Lebanon after Israel launched a ground invasion in October.
Lebanese have also been displaced from other parts of the country, notably the southern Beirut suburbs and the eastern Bekaa province. It’s unclear how long it will take cash-strapped Lebanon to rebuild these bombarded neighborhoods.
The war has displaced some 1.2 million people, according to the Lebanese government.
JERUSALEM — As the ceasefire took effect early Wednesday, Israel’s military warned people with homes in areas of south Lebanon that it ordered evacuated to stay away for now.
Israeli military spokesman Col. Avichay Adraee issued the warning on the social platform X.
“You are prohibited from heading towards the villages that the IDF has ordered to be evacuated or towards IDF forces in the area,” Adraee wrote, using an acronym for the Israeli military. “For your safety and the safety of your family members, refrain from moving to the area.”
There were no immediate signs of renewed fighting as the ceasefire took hold early Wednesday morning.
The ceasefire between Israel and Lebanon’s Hezbollah militants has begun as a region on edge wonders whether it will hold.
The ceasefire announced Tuesday is a major step toward ending nearly 14 months of fighting sparked by the ongoing war in Gaza between Israel and Hamas.
Israel has said it will attack if Hezbollah breaks the ceasefire agreement.
The ceasefire calls for an initial two-month halt to fighting and requires Hezbollah to end its armed presence in southern Lebanon, while Israeli troops are to return to their side of the border. An international panel led by the United States will monitor compliance.
The ceasefire began at 4 a.m. Wednesday, a day after Israel carried out its most intense wave of airstrikes in Beirut since the start of the conflict that in recent weeks turned into all-out war.
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Smoke rises following an Israeli airstrike on Dahiyeh, in Beirut, Lebanon, Tuesday, Nov. 26, 2024. (AP Photo/Bilal Hussein)
Rescuers use an excavator as they search for victims at the site of an Israeli airstrike that targeted a building in Beirut, Lebanon, Tuesday, Nov. 26, 2024. (AP Photo/Hassan Ammar)
A man runs next to an ambulance arriving at the site of an Israeli airstrike that targeted a building in Beirut, Lebanon, Tuesday, Nov. 26, 2024. (AP Photo/Hassan Ammar)
Rescuers search for victims at the site of an Israeli airstrike that targeted a building in Beirut, Lebanon, Tuesday, Nov. 26, 2024. (AP Photo/Hassan Ammar)
Smoke rises following an Israeli airstrike on Dahiyeh, in Beirut, Lebanon, Tuesday, Nov. 26, 2024. (AP Photo/Bilal Hussein)
People in their cars return back to their villages after the ceasefire between Hezbollah and Israel began early morning, in Tyre, south Lebanon, Wednesday, Nov. 27, 2024. (AP Photo/Hussein Malla)
A woman waves a Hezbollah flag as she celebrates a ceasefire between Hezbollah and Israel which began early morning, in Tyre, south Lebanon, Wednesday, Nov. 27, 2024. (AP Photo/Hussein Malla)
A Lebanese family returns back to their village with their belongings after a ceasefire between Hezbollah and Israel began early morning, in Tyre, south Lebanon, Wednesday, Nov. 27, 2024. (AP Photo/Hussein Malla)
People in their cars with belongings return back to their villages after a ceasefire between Hezbollah and Israel began early morning, in Tyre, south Lebanon, Wednesday, Nov. 27, 2024. (AP Photo/Hussein Malla)
In this image made from video, smoke is seen amid buildings in Beirut, Lebanon, Wednesday, Nov. 27, 2024. (AP Photo)
A Civil Defense worker distributes safety fliers to people returning back to their villages after the ceasefire between Hezbollah and Israel began early morning, in Tyre, south Lebanon, Wednesday, Nov. 27, 2024. (AP Photo/Hussein Malla)
People hug each other upon their arrival at their building after the ceasefire between Hezbollah and Israel began early morning, in Tyre, south Lebanon, Wednesday, Nov. 27, 2024. (AP Photo/Hussein Malla)
A man who is returning to his village waves as he carries his belongings on his car after the ceasefire between Hezbollah and Israel began early morning, in Tyre, south Lebanon, Wednesday, Nov. 27, 2024. (AP Photo/Hussein Malla)
